OUR EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Background to the blog

Green Watch at Manchester Central Fire StationGreen Watch at Manchester Central Fire Station

Keiran Gillam is a firefighter based on Green Watch at Manchester Central Fire Station. Here he gives you a background to his role as a firefighter...

There are approximately 1,700 firefighters working in Greater Manchester. Firefighters need to be on hand to respond to incidents across Greater Manchester 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The shift system
To co-ordinate the work rotas of firefighters a shift system is used at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service which involves each firefighter carrying out a tour of duty every eight days. A tour of duty involves two day shifts consisting of nine hours each and two night shifts consisting of 15 hours each. After seven tours of duty a firefighter has a break of 18 days before returning to work. These fixed shifts are only part of the firefighter shift pattern and a number of flexible shifts are also included in the shift pattern, these shifts on average involve 340 hours of the yearly total.

Different firefighter roles
There are various roles a firefighter can undertake when he/she comes on shift depending on the qualifications they have received from training course:

  • Emergency Response Driver - on either a fire engine or specialist vehicle they will also be responsible for pumping water.
  • BA (Breathing Apparatus) team member - part of a two man team who will if required wear breathing apparatus to enter a building for firefighting or rescues.
  • Runner/Spare person - normally the first line appliance (fire engine) will have a spare person. Their job is to assist the Officer in Charge and the BA teams. This can involve getting water, equipment, passing messages to name but a few. All personnel are trained to deal with road traffic collisions, miscellaneous rescues and appliance equipment.
  • Officer in Charge of specialist vehicle - responsible for knowledge and capabilities of specialist appliance.

About my fire station (Manchester Central)
The fire station at Manchester Central has two fire engines and a Hydraulic Platform vehicle (HP). I qualified on the HP approximately two years ago and have recently under taken an emergency response driving course. Every firefighter is trained in Breathing Apparatus or a spare person role.